Is a progressively decreasing actual mintage of "regular" silver medals a sign that interest is waning for this series?

After the initial mintage of 2010 for Yuyuan and 1500 for Lan Ting the mintage for proof silver has remained at 1000 except for the Geyuan medal whose mintage was 588 probably because it was an addition to the original planned line-up of medals.

I don't have any information on coin sales so I can't determine if there is any relationship with the mintage being dropped.

Some medals are disappearing from the market AFAIK. The Lan Ting antique silver, Xiequyuan, Summer Resort Antique Brass and the recently released Liuyuan antique brass are all very difficult to locate.

As KOT pointed out, ever since Summer Palace, the silver proof has been steady at 1000. Only the recent Liuyuan silver proof has two versions, proof and reverse proof. There are still a total of 1000 pieces, although they only make up 500 pairs.

Geyuan was an exception. It was not sponsored by the team. Instead it was Shanghai Mint's own product. The team had no say in its mintage. Due to its low mintage, fantastic design and engraving, and the status of a wrong medal (to the credit of KOT), it has been very popular. The recent price has caught up with that of Lanting.

This is the clearest photographic image of the Liuyuan medal I have seen so far. I wonder which camera was used for the photo? The clarity helps put the Auspicious Cloud Crowned Peak scholar stone in perspective, much better than I thought previously in my comments several posts back: http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=11056.msg70536#msg70536.

The clear views show that the vegetation is not amorphous as suggested by the lower definition photos seen previously. You can see different foliage patterns and more defined structural and decorative lines on the man-made structures that are present on both sides of the medal.

It may take some time for a consensus view to emerge but I believe this is another innovative/stellar product from the design team and the Mint. Thanks for sharing.

As you know, the decisive factor is not the camera, but the skill. The pictures above were taken using an old Nikon D80.

I was disappointed when I saw the early pictures taken with cell phones, thinking how bad the engraving was. The rock appeared flat and lifeless. The foliage was a blob. But as you can see from these pictures, there are a lot of details in the rock and the foliage behind. These pics have done some justice to the work of the designers/engravers.

As you know, the decisive factor is not the camera, but the skill. The pictures above were taken using an old Nikon D80.

I was disappointed when I saw the early pictures taken with cell phones, thinking how bad the engraving was. The rock appeared flat and lifeless. The foliage was a blob. But as you can see from these pictures, there are a lot of details in the rock and the foliage behind. These pics have done some justice to the work of the designers/engravers.

I used to own a Lubitel camera (in Secondary School/High school) which was supposed to be a Russian knockoff of some other elite brand. You had to wind the film and adjust the focus as well as the aperture. I used to watch the sun intensity and direction (I never bought a light intensity meter). Almost like raising your spittle moistened finger in the air to determine the wind direction!!! I am sorry folks, but I still haven't seen anything that beats the photos I used to take then with that camera (xx years ago) (SANDAC's Xiequyuan's photo timing or earlier?). Photography is BEST when you can control ALL components to making a GREAT picture. And a GREAT photo can make or break. BTW is it politically correct for me to say that now? Have I hurt anyone's feelings?! Any millennials on board so far?

It is not CCF moderator's role to police what member said on other forum, nor should we apply our rules of etiquette to what our members said or do on other forum. If such language is allowed in other forum, it is their problems, not ours.

I'm annoyed I should even need to comment on this and posts such as davidt above would normally be deleted for trolling. It is trolling, davidt, please move on. Use PM to settle your differences if you like. We don't police what's said on PM, unless it is illegal activities. SANDAC

I am sorry this forum has been pulled into events that took place on another forum. I have tried to avoid responding to davidts’ recent postings in forum threads here that had no relationship to the matter he was talking about. But he has not stopped. Unfortunately, his recent posting will remain on this very popular forum thread.

I used a scatologic descriptive at LBC in reference to davidts’ postings made during the “2016 LBC Mutiny” where he repeatedly taunted, insulted and denigrated the forum administrator. No, the administrator is not my friend. I don’t even know him personally. I am not carrying water for him. I stopped posting actively in that forum about a year ago and my reasons are well documented in their archives. I don’t agree with everything badon writes but that is his blog and any user of that blog should at the minimum show respect to him; or quit posting there and start another blog elsewhere as was amply threatened by some of the mutiny gang members.

Yes, if davidt has any issue he wants to discuss with me or if he has any complaints he should as a matter of proper etiquette send me a private message here or lay the matter open on LBC and not here on CCF. I will then decide if there is need for me to respond or not. Rather, we have this situation in which he makes repeated late night attacks on this forum including a very vituperative posting that was deleted.

Not only that, he has been smiting me incessantly (>6 smites) in concert with his "friend" (>8 smites). I vectored in on those smites with a high degree of precision and I am confident with my correlation stats +/-1. In fact his "friend" just gave me another smite this afternoon.

Although applauds and smites were placed here for a reason should they be abused? Is there any reason why a forum member should repeatedly smite another member with no evidence in the targeted member’s postings to justify the smites? There was a time when both members were tag-team smiting me every 3-4 days as soon as the lock on their smite buttons was released. Now it is happening after six days due to the fact that the refractory period for repeat applauds and smites increased to ?6 days. Perhaps this is another issue that should be looked into as we consider the “victimhood” of davidt.

As far as I know, nobody is having a problem here at CCF with KOT, so I think we should just let this die. KOT has proven himself as a reliable buyer/trading partner and seems enthusiastic about learning more about the MCC world. Let it be.